"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in"(Leonard Cohen)

"Ignore all proffered rules and create your own, suitable for what you want to say"(Michael Moorcock)

"Look for your own. Do not do what someone else could do as well as you. Do not say, do not write what someone else could say, could write as well as you. Care for nothing in yourself but what you feel exists nowhere else. And, out of yourself create, impatiently or patiently, the most irreplaceable of beings."(Andre Gide)

"I want my place, my own place, my true place in the world, my proper sphere, my thing which Nature intended me to perform when she fashioned me thus awry, and which I have vainly sought all my life-time."(Nathaniel Hawthorne)

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.” (Franz Kafka)

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated"(John Donne)

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” (Robert J. Hanlon)

About Marxism

Notwithstanding the rich variety of its practical and theoretical articulations and interpretations, classical or orthodox Marxism - as a totalising but open-ended world view - constitutes the most fertile conceptual framework for analysing social phenomena and generally understanding the world: analogous, in some sense, to Darwinism's relationship to the natural sciences/biology. By definition, it is 'interdisciplinary' and multanimous. More importantly still, Marxism provides us with the tools to actually CHANGE the world - not indulge in abstract, scholastic (and ultimately futile), theorising. Karl Marx famously demanded the "merciless criticism of everything that exists" - which of course includes Marxism itself.A Marxism that does not constantly seek to renew itself, think afresh, is not Marxism but rather a dogma or ideology and hence ultimately cannot serve an emancipatory purpose.

The Socialist Organization in Israel, founded in 1962 and known by the name of its journal "Matzpen" (Hebrew for "Compass"), was a revolutionary organization that viewed Zionism as a colonizing project, and strove for Arab–Jewish coexistence, based on full equality. Matzpen supported implementation of the Palestinians' human and national rights, and called for solving the region's national and social problems through struggle for overthrowing all the region's existing regimes, and creating a united socialist Arab East. Matzpen considered as enemies of the socialist revolution not only the capitalist regimes but also the repressive bureaucratic regimes of the USSR and the Eastern Bloc. Since the June 1967 war, Matzpen called for full, immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israel from all the territories it occupied in that war, and supported the right of the Palestinian people to struggle for liberation.

My Outlook

"We have seen ... that the first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of the ruling class - to win the battle of democracy."(Karl Marx & Frederich Engels - 'The Communist Manifesto', 1848)I'm a naturalist-materialist atheist or scientific humanist. There is nothing but Nature; natural things, natural forces and all the incredibly complex - but ultimately understandable - laws of nature (ie, philosophical monism or holism). In other words, Nature is literally everything: atoms, sub-atomic particles, quarks, planets, stars, Black Holes, brains, genes, DNA, neurons, synapses, mountains, bacteria, badgers, grass, etc. Meaning that - ultimately - industry, technology, factories, cars, etc are all products of nature, albeit in an alienated and reified form. There are no supernatural/supranatural entities or realms standing apart from, or separate, from, nature - no heaven, no hell, no nirvana, no reincarnation, no karma: above us only the infinite, indifferent, cosmos. Humanity, just like all Life - whether on this planet or possibly elsewhere - is a contingent and unintended product of nature: a happy accident (or unfortunate mishap). Hence there is no teleological-driven or preordained purpose ('end point') to human life - a theological fantasy. But nor is history purely accidental or random, a mere kaleidoscope of happenstance - the postmodern fallacy. Just as evolution itself is a bottom-up process whereby 'design' and complexity emerge out of blind - automatic - but non-random processes, so there is a broad spiral of directionality to history and human development (the general spread of 'excellence', etc); albeit a 'progressive' directionality which is subject, by definition, to countervailing tendencies towards relative regression or even collapse. Prior to the so-called 'farming revolution' of the Neolithic era (ca. 8,000-5,000 BC), we lived for two hundred thousand years or more in classless, egalitarian, matrilineal, societies & communities: the original Affluent Society of "primitive communism". Indeed, the origins of our species lie in a revolutionary act of female solidarity ('sex strike' theory) that overthrew alpha male domination: humanity is a revolutionary species. But "all the old crap" (Marx) began with the male-led counterrevolution of the emerging cattleocracy-cum-priestocracy: Pharaohs, kings, state bureaucracies, class oppression, inequality, warfare, etc (cattle>chattel>capital). As a consequence, the quality of life for the overwhelming majority of humans plummeted, with the lying stones of Stonehenge serving as a grim monument to the new epoch of class oppression and exploitation. We need not only to learn from our magnificent revolutionary-communist past but 'go back to it' - but on an exponentially higher, more advanced level. As for the present epoch, it is characterised by the revolutionary transition from capitalism to communism. The main contradiction is between a chronically malfunctioning capitalism, which is in visible crisis and decline, and an overdue communism. In fact, capitalism in its ceaseless and destructive search for profit puts the future of humanity at risk - being synonymous with war, pollution, exploitation and crisis. So neither Stalinism nor anti-communism, but revolutionary democratic communism. Indeed, Stalinism is anti-communism: the counterrevolution within the revolution. Contrary to popular prejudice, so assiduously cultivated by academia and the mainstream media, Marxism is not a dogma or 'outdated' but rather an open-ended - yet internally and logically consistent - guide to practice, and must be constantly added to and enriched. Communists are champions of the oppressed, tribunes of the people. Socialism represents victory in the battle for democracy. It is the rule of the working class - ie, of the majority as opposed to minority capitalist rule. For communists, or 'classical' Marxists, socialism and democracy are inseparable. Therefore the principle form of class struggle is the fight for 'extreme' democracy against exploitation, bureaucracy and state oppression. As the 20th century has brutally confirmed, there has never been - nor can ever be - 'socialism in one country'. All forms of national socialism - to use Leon Trotsky's apt phrase - are objectively counterrevolutionary, leading only to the creation of ectopic or "freak societies" (Karl Marx). Socialism is either democratic or, as with Stalin’s Soviet Union (a tyrannical monocracy), it turns into its opposite. Oppose all immigration controls - no worker is illegal! For the free movement of peoples - one world, one working class. Defend migrant workers and asylum-seekers. Racism, and all its offshoots, is a poison that must always be fought. I favour a European 'super-state', but one which is democratically united from below by the working class - not ruled from above by bankers and Eurocrats. Nationalist calls to 'pull out of the EU' or restore national currencies must be rejected. In so far as the EU and the Euro Zone represent an objective development towards the merging of the peoples & nations of the world - and the creation of a single world economy - communists oppose those who to break it apart and fight for the creation of a mass Communist Party of the European Union. Rather than being an endless goody bag to plunder at whim, our planet has finite resources - but which, if managed rationally, can indefinitely sustain and satisfy human & non-human life. Therefore the centrality of the struggle for environmental & ecological sustainability, as it is in the very nature of capitalism to pollute and despoil the natural world. Down with all forms of censorship and anything that impedes free speech and general democratic openness in society: for the open clash of different and contending ideas. Ban paid-for advertising, a system of heavily subsidised profit that acts to stifle political debate and difference. Break-up the corporate, monopolistic, mass media empires (Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the Walt Disney Company, Time Warner, CBS Corporation etc), which pump out a monolithic rightwing diet and strangle democratic diversity. For the immediate abolition of the monarchy and the House of Lords. Disestablish the Church of England. Annual parliaments. Elect judges. Introduce a party-list proportional representation voting system with no undemocratic barriers - such as artificial minimum-percentage thresholds for elections and the requirement for large deposits. No more state secrecy, 'official' secrets or underhand diplomacy. Full equality for gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, trans, intersex people, etc - including the right to marriage, adopt, etc. Replacement of the bourgeois standing army, effectively a mercenary army, with a universal workers' militia - the people armed. Immediate abolition of all nuclear & biological/chemical weaponry, as they are hideous weapons of mass destruction that can serve no defensive purpose: there is no 'socialist bomb'. Imperialism, neo-colonialism and Great Power chauvinism can serve no progressive role - equality for all nations and peoples. End the irrational 'war on drugs' and legalise all drugs - use the monies to fund proper, non-moralistic, drugs education and treatment Abolish the death penalty and al forms of corporal punishment. All prisoners should have the right to vote and access to high quality education, medical treatment, the internet, conjugal rights, etc. Put an end to all forms of 'factory farming', 'battery farming', etc which brings needless suffering to animals and is dehumanising for humans - whether as workers (eg, abattoirs, farming, food processing) or consumers (ie, eating shit). Workers have a right to high-quality, varied, genuinely appetising food - not the present 'one size fits all' mass-produced crap that is so unhealthy and produced at such cost to society and nature itself. Ban all cruel and unusual 'sports': fox-hunting, bull-fighting, grouse-shooting, etc. Nationalise all the big farms and landed estates, fight for the 'right to roam'. No more monoculture and the inexorable spread of rural deserts - allow nature to return by designating whole tracts of land as as wilderness areas, so as to re-establish or make forests, marshes, glades, woods, etc. Reintroduce species drive to the point of extinction - wolves, bears, bison, wild pigs, etc. In other words, communists are for the greening of the cities and the humanising of the countryside - which would entail ending overpopulation and underpopulation, a rational redistribution of people, much better housing, many more parks, free urban public transport, curbing car use in towns and cities and massively lowering air and river pollution. Instead of fenced off green belts we want forests around every city with free access. The unproductive and parasitical City of London should be taken over for people. Today it has no more than a few thousand permanent residents; it could easily house a million. Turn the office blocks into beautiful living spaces. As part of our struggle for real democracy, communists favour using parliament and other electoral-political arenas so as to secure the biggest possible working class representation (a barometer to gauge our strength). Yet the obvious reality is that the capitalist class will never willingly allow their wealth and power to be taken away by a mere parliamentary vote, and will resist using every means at their disposal (including 'extra-parliamentary' ones, of course). Hence the working class must be readied to make revolution - peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must. Historically and theoretically, socialism is communism which emerges from capitalist society, the first stage of the worldwide transition to communism - a system which knows neither wars, exploitation, money, classes, states nor nations. The goal of communists therefore is universal human emancipation, not the 'politics of envy' or a petty revenge project against the ruling class. Communism is the free association of direct producers - everybody will contribute according to their ability and take according to genuine human need, the real meaning of 'abundance' (as opposed to the ceaseless production and accumulation of things). That is, communism is general freedom and the real beginning of human history: the true flowering of the human personality and the full realisation (or re-realisation) of our human nature.

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."(O'Brien to Winston Smith - in George Orwell's 1984)

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"The aspiration to truth is more precious than its assured possession."(Gotthold Lessing)

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved"

* CRITIQUE ("the problems of our time are governed by the necessity for democratic control over all aspects of society")* HISTORICAL MATERIALISM (an 'interdisciplinary’ journal that "opposes the compartmentalisation of knowledge" - get the HMbook series)

* REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY ("dealing with the history of the revolutionary socialist movement from a mainly Trotskyist viewpoint")

* DAVID McNALLY(member of the New Socialist Group and author of "Monsters of the Market: Zombies, Vampires and Global Capitalism")* BORDERLANDS E-JOURNAL ("aims to promote transdisciplinary work across the humanities & social sciences")* MONTHLY REVIEW ("from 1949 for socialism and against US imperialism")

* HAYMARKET BOOKS("a non-profit, progressive book distributor and publisher that take inspiration and courage from our namesakes, the Haymarket Martyrs, who gave their lives fighting for a better world in heir 1886 struggle for the eight-hour day - which gave us May Day")

* BRILL ("founded in 1683")* VERSO BOOKS ("the largest independent, radical publishing house in the English-speaking world")* NEW LEFT REVIEW* ZERO BOOKS ("in the unthinking, blandly consensual culture in which we live, critical and engaged theoretical reflection is more important than ever before" - its Blog)

* ZED BOOKS ("critical and dynamic publisher, committed to increasing awareness of important international issues and to promoting diversity, alternative voices and progressive social change")

* OR BOOKS ("embraces progressive change in politics, culture and the way we do business")

* JACOBIN("a magazine of culture and polemic that Edmund Burke ceaselessly berates on his Twitter page")* NEW LEFT PROJECT ("a belief in the value and equality of human life")* A VERY PUBLIC SOCIOLOGIST ("sociology with a socialist twist")* DAVID OSLER (covers questions "from an unorthodox Marxist standpoint")* TENDANCE COATESY (offering "news and comments from a Militant Secularist Ipswich Allotment Holder")* BOFFY'S BLOG ("analysis of politics, philosophy and economics from a Marxist perspective")

* CALYX("the Canterbury Music website")* WEIRDOMUSIC ("discovering the darkest corners of the musical universe since 2001")* THE RISING STORM ("we focus on lost gems in the genres of garage, country rock, psych folk, psychedelic rock, and other overlooked classics")* AQUARIUM DRUNKARD ("bridges the gap between contemporary indie with vintage garage, psych, folk, country, New Orleans funk, r&b, soul and everything that falls in between")

* WILLIAM GADDIS (The Recognitions)* PHILIP ROTH (and his Society: "greed, fear, racism, and political ambition are disclosed as the motive forces behind the 'all-American ideals'")* CORMAC McCARTHY (and his Society: "he imagined the pain of the world to be like some formless parasitic being seeking out the warmth of human souls")* T.C. BOYLE ("explores the ruthlessness and the unpredictability of nature and the toll human society unwittingly takes on the environment")* RUSSELL BANKS (and Wikipedia)* JAMES BALDWIN

* NORMAN SPINRAD(and Wikipedia)* DAVID R. BUNCH (the violent cyborg dystopia of Moderan)* BARRINGTON BAYLEY (and his Astounding Worlds)* KEITH ROBERTS (most famous, rightly or wrongly, for Pavane - which depicts a 1968 in which the Roman Catholic Church still rules supreme after Protestantism was destroyed during the wars that resulted from the aftermath of the assassination of Queen Elizabeth in 1588)

* TIM DAVYS (Mollisan Town Quartet)* TOM BRADLEY (Bizarro fiction about "a harelip with a six-figure book advance, a seven-foot-tall banjoist losing his mind in the London tube, a cannibal organist in the basement of the Mormon Tabernacle," etc)* JEREMY C. SHIPP ("a place where toasters run free and hippos climb trees")

* K.W. JETER(Steamwords)* JON ARMSTRONG (stories set a "superficial, dystopic near-future ruled by fashion and consumerism")* PETER WATTS ("imagine a a first contact with aliens story from the point of view of a zombie post-human crewman aboard a starship captained by a vampire")

* DAVID ANTHONY DURHAM* JEFF VANDERMEER (leading New Weird figure, signature world of Ambergris - "an urban sprawl populated by humans after its original inhabitants, the mushroom-like humanoids known as "gray caps", were violently driven underground: and who continue to cast a shadow over the city with their unexplained nocturnal activities")* CHINA MIEVILLE (New Weird inventor of Bas-Lag - a world where both magic ('thaumaturgy') and steampunk technology exist and is home to many intelligent races: the jewel in the crown being the monstrous city-state of New Crobuzon)* JEFFREY FORD (fabulous creator of worlds, particularly the nightmarish metropolis of the Well-Built City - which exists only because the satanic genius Drachton Below, the Master, wished it so: within which resides the Physiognomist Cley, who can divine good and evil with his scalpels and callipers)* MICHAEL SWANWICK(groundbreaking SF writer, especially knows for his "revisionist" or "anti-fantasy" fantasy novel - The Iron Dragon's Daughter, about a changeling who is a slave at a dragon factory building part-magical, part-cybernetic monsters that are used as jet fighters for cruel elves in Armani suits)

* SHANE STEVENS (By Reason of Insanity)* HUBERT SELBY JR* JAMES LEE BURKE (fighting crime, corruption, injustice, inequality, racism and bigotry in Louisiana)* WALTER MOSLEY ("the exploration of the complex tensions at the heart of race in America" - most famously with the hard-boiled detective stories featuring Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighbourhood of Los Angeles)* JAMES CRUMLEY ("patron saint of the post-Vietnam private eye novel and a cross between Raymond Chandler & Hunter S. Thompson" - author of the seminal, THE LAST GOOD KISS)* JIM THOMPSON ("grifters, losers, sociopaths and psychopaths - revealing a frighteningly deep understanding of the warped mind")

* PC GAMER (just about everything you reasonably need to know)* GAY GAMER ("for boys who like boys who like joysticks!")* REDDIT* GameBanshee* RPG WATCH (keeping an eye on computer Role-Playing Games)* RPG CODEX ("doesn't scale to your level")* GAMING DAILY ("the home of PC gaming", apparently)* USER CREATED (yes, the stuff that you make for nothing in your lonely teenage bedrooms - Mods for PC games)* MOD DATABASE (hoarding all those lovely, and sometimes not quite so lovely, Mods made by you)

* ZUMBS' BLOG ("the truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head")* PLAY THE PAST ("dedicated to thoughtfully exploring and discussing the intersection of cultural heritage and games")* SEXY VIDEOGAMELAND ("I think people should be able to be into games and still have a cool life")

* NO USELESS LEGACY("for it is the duty of the good man to teach others the good that you could not work because of the malignity of the times or of fortune, so that when many are capable of it, someone of them more loved by heaven will be able to work it")* FIGURE/GROUND COMMUNICATION ("the meaning of meaning is relationship")

About Me

"It is better to be Hated for what you are, than Loved for what you are not."(Andre Gide, 1869-1951)Since my unwanted ejection from the womb I've strived - though not always successfully - to live as orderly and boring a life as possible. Without doubt, when the light is right, I am cute and cuddly. I have a strong gut aversion, if not allergy, to all forms of bigotry and ignorance (racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, religious fundamentalism, etc). A life-long internationalist/globalist - as opposed to a nationalist or patriot - I am resolutely anti-militarist and anti-imperialist: down with the warmongers! Adhere to a militant or 'fundamentalist' secularism, there should be a strict separation between church and state - with the state giving no preferential treatment or privileges to any religion or faith. In other words, there should be absolute equality between all faiths and those who subscribe no faith: freedom to practice religion, freedom not to practice religion. Subscribe to the view that democracy, like civilisation, is an excellent idea - so let's fight to make it real. I believe in the fundamental, or substantive, equality of all nations, peoples and individuals. In turn, I reject all forms of elitism: who educates the educators? Unsurprisingly, I am an ardent opponent of 'intellectual property rights', etc, and stand for unfettered freedom of information. Similarly, I'm against 'commercial secrecy' and 'state secrets' - there should be total transparency in all business and political transactions. All our elected representatives and officials - parliament, trade unions, etc - should be fully accountable and subject to the power of instant recall. Not being perfect, I do admit to not particularly enjoying the company of coarse, vexatious, aggressive or shrilly opinionated people. I do not kowtow to anyone - forget it. Disapprove of idle & malicious gossip and two-facedness: hypocrisy sucks big time too. Like to avoid pubs that victimise the victim or foster a culture of loutishness & criminality. Getting wasted - off your trolley - isn't smart, cool or funny. Nor is violence or brutality. Opposed to the irrational 'war on drugs' and call for the legalisation of all drugs - get the gear out of the scummy hands of organised crime, tax it like booze & tobacco, and then use the money/revenue to fund proper drugs rehabilitation & educational programmes. Besides trust and loyalty, strongly believe that tolerance, empathy and kindness is everything - alongside the continual, life-long struggle to educate and develop yourself into a fully-rounded individual: to become a very human human being. Always do your best to help the genuinely misinformed or misguided. I've been a member and supporter of the Communist Party of Great Britain Provisional Central Committee/Weekly Worker group since 1991 - the year that according to mythology saw the final 'collapse of communism' in the Soviet Union. Previously, for my sins, I was a member of the (Furedite) Revolutionary Communist Party - which did not live up to its name. Also done time - earned my stripes - in the Socialist Labour Party and the Socialist Alliance (the real one). In my time, I have even been known to pen a 'heavy' article or two for that voice of Common-Sense & Decency, the "Weekly Worker". Indeed, since about the age of 6 I've been a compulsive scribbler - doubtlessly motivated by deep neurosis and insecurity. Between the ages of 8-10, I wanted to be a Chess Grandmaster - even had lessons from an ex-pro with fuzzy hair who looked a bit like a cross between Albert Einstein and Edgar Varese. But I moved on. I'm especially interested in Pre-Socratic materialist philosophy; Ancient Indian materialism & atheism (Ajita Kesakambali, Lokāyata/Cārvāka, etc); Epicurean school of materialism; Spinoza'a concepts of Ethics, Tolerance & Immanence; positive atheism, naturalism and non-religious spirituality; the history, political movements and philosophies of Greece & Rome in the Classical Era/Antiquity; the history of secularist & humanist thought; Utopia & Dystopia in political writings and literature; eschatological & apocalyptic themes in science fiction; evolutionary & Darwinian theory; radical anthropology and the human revolution ('sex strike' theory, etc); "imaginary communities", nations, nationalities, nationalism and the right to Self-Determination; the Balkans & Central Europe, "non-historic peoples", "counterrevolutionary nations" and the National Question; the symbiotic relationship between anti-semitism and Zionism, and the foundation myths of Israel; critiquing official/institutional anti-racism, multi-culturalism and 'political correctness'; human & sea-horse sexuality, customs and practices; theatrical and performance arts; Surrealist, Dada & Expressionist art - especially Otto Dix, Max Ernst, Rene Magritte, Max Beckmann, John Heartfield; the life, times and work of Pablo Picasso - who "never got called an asshole"; the debates around 'Artificial Intelligence'; philosophical & political implications raised by Fermi's Paradox ("Where Are They?"); Red, as opposed to Green, environmentalism and ecologism; the origins and politics of religion; Jesus the revolutionary apocalyptic communist (as opposed to the other-worldly, rather creepy, figure of Christian anti-semitic fabrication); Islam in historical context; is Buddhism an atheist religion?; the history & politics of Irish republicanism; bureaucracy, organisational forms and the "tyranny of structurelessness" ; the Levellers, Diggers, Gerrard Winstanley and the roots of English communism; American communism - what went wrong?; the revolutionary contribution of Karl Marx & Frederich Engels to the Democratic Breakthrough; the genesis and development of Classical Marxist theory; the relationship between VI Lenin and Karl Kautsky, "the Pope of Marxism"; the Russian Revolution and the origins of the counterrevolution-within-the revolution; the birth, evolution and death agony of 'official communism'; the theory and practice of Trotskyism; and contemporary 'real life' far left & communist politics - and organisations - in the UK and USA. Needless to say, I am a voracious reader - yes, a Book Geek, run! - having a special passion for literature: especially the 'genres' of science fiction, (non-generic) fantasy, horror, slipstream, surrealism, and crime that vaguely belongs somewhere in the disturbing nether regions between Hardboiled/Noir and horror. Within science fiction & fantasy, I have a particular fondness for sub-genres of Steampunk, Cyberpunk, post-Cyberpunk, Squidpunk (watch out for it), New Space Opera and the 'New Weird' - though the New Wavers and Avant-Garders still remain like Colossuses on the beach. A few favourites to get me through the day are Mervyn Peake, Homer, Dante, John Milton, William Blake, Dostoevsky, Joseph Conrad, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Flann O'Brienm, Robert Graves, Harold Pinter, Edward Bond, Anton Chekhov, Henryk Ibsen, Bertolt Brecht, Caryl Churchill, Jorge Luis Borges, Reza Negarestani, William Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Vladimir Nabokov, Nikolai Gogol, Franz Kafka, W.B. Yeats, Edgar Allen Poe, H.G. Wells, Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, Dan Simmons, Angela Carter, Jeff VanderMeer, Jay Lake, Steve Erickson, Stanislaw Lem, Italo Calvino, Peter Watts, China Mieville, Michael Cisco, Brian Stableford, Gene Wolfe, Jeffrey Ford, Brian Evenson, John Crowley, Philip K. Dick, Thomas Ligotti, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Catherynne M. Valente, Mary Gentle, Storm Constantine, Neal Stephenson, Jeffrey Thomas, J.G. Ballard, Brian Aldiss, Barrington Bayley, Thomas M. Disch, John T. Sladek, Lucius Shepard, Michael Swanwick, Greg Egan, Ian R. MacLeod M. John Harrison, Peter Straub, Conrad Williams, Dexter Palmer, Ian McDonald, Maureen McHugh, Elizabeth Hand, Michael Marshall Smith, Michael Ajvaz, Jean-Christophe Valtat, Sebastien Doubinsky, Gwyneth Jones, Joanna Russ, Peter Carey, Roger Zelazny, William Kennedy, Jon Courtenay Grimwod, Kurt Vonegut, William S. Burroughs, Herman Melville, Homer, Mario Llosa Vargas, Gunter Grass, Jose Donoso, Huraki Murakami, Jose Saramago, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Robert Bolano, Javier Marias, Raymond Carver, John Cheever, Richard Yates, James Salter, Robertson Davies, Carol Emshwiller, Don Delillo, Adam L.G. Nevill, Laird Barron, Ted Chiang, K.J. Bishop, Alice Munro, Cynthia Ozick, John Kessel, James Patrick Kelly, Pat Cadigan, Alasdair Gray, Robertson Davies, James Salter, George Saunders, Felix Gilman, Sarah Monette, Steph Swainston, Ekaterina Sedia, Elizabth Bear, Richard Morgan, Ursula Le Guin, Raymond Chandler, Jonathan Lethem, Matt Ruff, Nick Mamatas, Glen Hirshberg, Paul G. Tremlay, Alan Deniro, J.M. McDermot, Paul McAuley, Charlie Huston, James Sallis, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Paul Russo, Ken Bruen, Paolo Bacigalupi, John Banville, Kelly Link, Jim Crace, Samuel R. Delany, Alastair Reynolds, Bruce Sterling, William Gibson, Charles Stross, Ken MacLeod Christopher Priest - and so on. Possible all-time favourite stories are Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan (J.G. Ballard, 1968), Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones (Samuel R. Delany, 1968) and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy (1946-59) . I am a relatively recent convert to computer Nerdism/Geekism, being historically an Arty-Farty-cum-Humanities kind of guy, and was not (properly) introduced to a PC until May 2003. But I have certainly made up for it ever since! Now a zealous and ever vigilante Netizen, permanently alert for any act of injustice or idiocy anywhere in the world (keeps you busy). Since my computer/internet epiphany I've become, amongst many fascinating things, an unabashed computer games buff - currently obsessed to the point of near mania with Metro 2033 and I have quite a slobbering thing for Left 4 Dead 2 (love zombies like any sensible person). This is only to be expected though, being a seasoned War Gamer and Dungeons & Dragons campaigner. Indeed, I am a highly decorated armchair general and goblin slayer - even the Uruk-hai fear me. Though late to the show, as per usual, now a Facebook devotee. I also really like the gritty ("re-imagined") Battlestar Galactica TV series - appeals to the frustrated starship trooper in me. And Babylon Five was pretty great too in its own (sometimes frustrating) way. Though of course nothing will ever beat Quatermass - after all these years, I still regularly wake up in the middle of the night screaming in terror about that damned Pit. Somewhat unexpectedly, some of the best innovative TV around can be found in the US - most notably "The Wire", "Breaking Bad", "Rubicon" (sadly cancelled), "Mad Men", "The Killing", "The Bridge" & "Spiral". At one point I was quite enamoured by The Stage. Like sculpture. And fine art. Comics & graphic novels too. To further increase my Geek Profile, I am a big fan of jazz - particularly people likes Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John & Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Mal Waldron, Cannoball Adderley, Joe Henderson, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass and so on, though I do like the occasionally lively dash of fusion/jazz-rock a la Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Nucleus, etc; modern & contemporary classical music (Edgar Varese, Anton Webern, György Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, Kronos Quartet, etc); 'progressive' & psychedelic rock (especially my all-time favourite FRANK ZAPPA, Captain Beefheart, Grateful Dead/Jerry Garcia, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, Robert Fripp/King Crimson, Soft Machine, Van Der Graaf Generator/Peter Hammill, Caravan, etc); the Blues and R&B (Guitar Slim, Magic Sam, Otis Rush, Muddy Waters, Albert King, Freddie King, BB king, Albert Collins, Johnny Guitar Watson, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, etc); the so-called American Primitives and related - the brilliant JOHN FAHEY, Leo Kottke, Sandy Bull, Stefan Grossman, Robbie Basho, Peter Lang, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Michael Hedges, etc; Funk & Soul (Funkadelic, Parliament, James Brown, Tower of Power, War, Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, Otis Redding, etc); many things a bit on the 'left field' or avant garde-ish side (Henry Kaiser, Fred Frith, Henry Cow, Jim O'Rourke, The Residents, Eugene Chadbounre, Pere Ubu/David Thomas, Red Crayola, etc); Americana and Alt Country (eg, Giant Sand/Howe Gelb, Calexico, Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Lambchop,), and of course I can never get enough of gloomy, doom-laden, intense, preferably angst-ridden and full of bottled-up rage, songwriters & performers who offer a "peep-show view into an insular world of alienation" (Richard Thompson, Vic Chesnutt, Kevin Coyne, Smog/Callahan, Jackie Leven, Will Oldham/Bonnie Prince Billy, Robert Wyatt, Roy Harper, John Cale, etc). Also have quite a passion for 'traditional' English Folk Music - Davey Graham, Shirley & Dolly Collins, The Watersons, Martin Carthy, Martin Simpson, June Tabor, Roy Bailey, Fairport Convention, Ashley Hutchings/Albion Band, (early) Steeleye Span, Pentangle, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Nic Jones, etc). And obviously I still love the greats like Jimi Hendrix, Peter Green, Jeff Beck, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Velvet Underground, Bob Marley, Tom Waits, etc. Possible all-time favourite songs are Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Sexually Aroused Gas Mask,Frogs With Dirty Little Lips, Baby, Take Your Teeth Out and I Feel So Good. Obviously, I hope to eventually fuse/meld my consciousness into the circuitry of my PC - enabling me to roam the data highways for eternity like the Lawnmower Man. Back to the womb at last. Sex is always a permanent option - please leave a message. Oh yes, I've got progeny, and a strange Irish surname. I have never been into outer space, not even once - though I am reasonably proficient in Klingon: "tlhIngan maH!"

My Archived Articles

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many.Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."(Buddha - allegedly)

"The sun is not a god, but a red-hot stone, rather larger than the Peloponnese."(Anaxagoras c. 500BC - 428BC)

"The most precious thing man has is life. It is given him only once, and he should live it in such a way that he does not end up regretting years spent aimlessly, or being ashamed of his mean and petty past, but can say on his death-bed: all my life and all my energies I devoted to the most beautiful thing on earth, the struggle to liberate mankind."(Nikolai Ostrovsky, 29 September 1904 – 22 December 1936)

"A Mind is like a Parachute - if it ain't Open, it ain't Working"(Frank Zappa, December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993)

Primitive Communism

This LOGO dated from the 7th to 6th Millennium B.C displays the surface of a stamp found in the Anatolian settlement of Çatalhöyük - a society organised on a classless basis. The COLOUR RED connects pre-Neolithic communism with our own hope for a humane society of the future.

My Sponsor

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"

My Co-sponsor

"Do the walls close in t' suffocate ya, You ain't got no friends . . . An' all the others: they hate ya - Does the life you been livin' gotta go?"

Robert Crumb's Despair

“Keep your enemies close, but your friends closer. That way your friends are between you and your enemies.”(Goblin proverb)